Ninety World War II veterans from Lancaster and surrounding towns are headed to Washington, D.C., to visit the World War II memorial on Saturday.

Kershaw residents spearheaded an Honor Flight for area veterans, starting fundraising efforts in the summer. Their hard work is sending local vets to see not only the World War II memorial, but Washington’s other war memorials as well.

A man driving a passenger van was killed Saturday afternoon while trying to avoid a tire that had come off of a truck pulling utility trailer on Flat Creek Road. South Carolina Highway Patrol State Trooper Lance Cpl. Jeff Gaskin said the accident happened on S.C. 903 just west of Primus Crossroads about 4:20 p.m. It involved three vehicles. Gaskin said the van, which was carrying five people, caught on fire. "It was fully engulfed in flames." Gaskin said. Gaskin said the victim's name would not be released until next of kin was notified.

For many people, gardening provides an inner solace that helps maintain balance in an otherwise hectic world. It provides an escape into nature where yards take on the unique personality of the gardener.

It’s those personal touches in Jean Wilson’s yard at 2239 Sunshine Road that caught the eye of Joyce Morin of the Lancaster Garden Club. The club named Wilson’s yard the November Yard of the Month.

The Buford High School cheer squad didn’t bring home the gold, but Jackets’ coach Julie Thompson was still proud of the BHS effort in the Class AA state cheer finals.

Buford, with 199 points, placed 10th in the 13-team field.

“To be in the state’s top 10 in any high school sport is what you shoot for,” Thompson said. “We beat three Class AA schools to finish No. 10 at the state, so we have to be happy about that. Naturally, you want to be No. 1, but there’s a lot of teams who would like to be where we finished this season.”

Roaming the streets at The Carolina Renaissance Festival has become old hat for 30-year-old Troy Dunbar. But in true renaissance fashion, that hat has changed into a turban.

After portraying a wandering poet at the festival for three years, Dunbar is now Arabian sultan Azeen Al-Mullah (“defender of money”) at the 16th- century European-style arts and entertainment festival.

And Dunbar, choral director at Lancaster High School, is easy to spot.

After two hours of deliberations, a jury convicted David Cauthen in the murder of his estranged girlfriend, Brenda Steen, on Friday, but Cauthen still denies committing the crime.

“I didn't kill Ms. Steen,” Cauthen said in a quiet voice to Circuit Judge John Few before Few sentenced him to life in prison.

Steen, 36, was Cauthen's on-again, off-again girlfriend and the mother of his daughter. She was stabbed six times on Oct. 17, 2004, and her body was found in a culvert under Camp Creek Road on Oct. 19, 2004.